Regardless of your postsecondary education experience, attending college can be very stressful, especially if this is your first time attending college. Unlike in the past, you spend significantly less time in the classroom. As a result, you now have more freedom and time to socialize with your peers and friends. However, spending less time in the classroom means you have to spend more time on your work outside of class.
This big change can feel overwhelming at first, but being able to strike a balance between your personal life and your school life is crucial to your success. Thankfully, East Ohio College is here to help you with your new journey. Here are 10 tips to help you balance your personal life with school.
1. Create A Schedule And Stick With It
The first tip we can offer is to create a schedule. A schedule is vital in balancing your school and personal life as it allows you to plan things out. With a schedule, you can have all your due dates and other commitments in one central place. When scheduling, there are two important parts that are equally responsible when determining the success of your planner: creating your schedule and sticking with your schedule.
How To Create Your Schedule
Before you can stick with your schedule, you have to create a schedule. When creating your schedule, you should put on just about everything. Include the dates assignments are due, your work schedule, dates of quizzes and tests, social events, and any other important thing or deadline you can think of with Google Calendar or a physical planner. This makes it easier to manage your schedule now that everything is in one place.
How To Stay With Your Schedule
With your schedule completed, you can now work on following it. The best way to maximize the effectiveness of your schedule is to follow it and meet all the deadlines. You can consult your calendar to figure out the best way to manage your time. For example, this week may be less busy, but you have a lot of assignments due next week. With your schedule finished, you can see that working on at least some of those assignments this week would be beneficial.
2. Take Large Tasks And Break Them Into Smaller Tasks
One large assignment, such as a research paper, can seem like an extensive project, and it can become a very intimidating task to start. By breaking it into smaller tasks, you can turn an intimidating project into several smaller and more manageable tasks across several weeks. One week can be spent on research, the following on creating an outline, and the only thing left is revising and finalizing your paper. What was once a scary task is now three small assignments.
3. Set Aside Time For Breaks
We understand that finding the time for a break when you have a lot of work to do can seem counterproductive, but breaks are crucial in preventing burnout and maintaining a work and school balance. We do not mean you should take so many breaks you cannot finish your work. Still, we do want to stress the importance of taking purposeful breaks, even if it is as simple as not doing any work while eating your favorite meal.
4. Be Able to Say “No”
Setting boundaries for yourself is another crucial step in balancing your personal life with your education. It is perfectly okay to be able to say no to someone when you notice that you already have a busy week on your calendar. By saying no, you can help yourself complete everything you have to complete on your schedule.
5. Ask Questions When You’re Stuck
If you are stuck on a question or don’t understand the directions of an assignment, you should ask your professor and/or your peers. If you find yourself still stuck on a problem after putting in a serious effort, it is okay to ask for help, and it is better to ask than stay stuck on it and waste valuable time. In order to maximize your time, you can also work on something else while waiting for a response.
6. Set Goals That Are Clear And Defined
By creating strong goals, you can maximize the benefits of your schedule. SMART goals can set you up to meet all the deadlines listed on your calendar. The easier you are able to meet all the deadlines, the easier it will become to balance your personal life and school.
7. Keep Everything Organized
One of our most vital tips is to keep everything organized. Even if you create a strong schedule, set goals, and follow every tip we have listed so far, being unorganized can make it so you do not put everything on your calendar. Also, you could lose certain papers that you need to complete other assignments. This is why keeping everything organized is crucial.
8. Manage Your Time Effectively
Effective time management can allow you to spend less time on school work and more time on your personal life. Discipline is the key to striking this balance. For example, instead of spending the 30 minutes you have between activities using your phone or lying around, spend that 30 minutes on one of your assignments. Here are a few more tips about how to manage your time effectively.
9. Limit Time Spent Procrastinating
Limiting the time you spend procrastinating goes hand in hand with effectively managing your time. Although it may seem like a good idea at the time to push something back, there will be significantly more stress trying to complete the assignment at the last minute, and your personal life and school balance will be disrupted. Not procrastinating is crucial to managing this balance.
10. Care For Your Body
Our last and most important step is to care for your body. Make sure that you are eating, staying hydrated, and sleeping. Furthermore, being stuck inside at a desk for long periods can make focusing harder, so be sure to take a walk or sit outside during a break. If you fail to take care of yourself, problems can seem much worse than they actually are, and you will not be able to perform as well as you usually can. Our sister school, United Career Institute, is here to provide you with more specific self-care tips!
Find Your Balance At East Ohio College!
Do you want to further your education? If so, contact East Ohio College’s admissions office by Requesting Information online or calling 330-385-1070 today!